Iconic Memory: Definition & Examples | Simply Psychology

Iconic memory is the visual sensory memory register which stores visual images after the extinction of a physical stimulus. Togglenavigation TheoriesResearchMethodsMentalHealthA-levelStatistics MemorySensoryMemoryIconicMemoryHowIconicMemoryWorksByAyeshPerera,publishedMarch16,2021Take-homeMessagesIconicmemoryisatypeofsensorymemorywhichstoresimagesforafractionofasecond.Iconicmemoryallowsfortheretentionofvisualsensoryimpressionsfollowingthecessationoftheoriginalstimulus,withtheresultthatavisualstimulusissubjectivelysustainedbyuptoseveralhundred milliseconds.In1960GeorgeSperlingdemonstratedthat,forabrief periodfollowingtheterminationofa50-millisecond displayofletters,moreinformationwasactuallyavailablethananobservercouldnormallyreport.Futurestudieshavefocusedon theeffectsofluminance,duration,contrast,andbackground levelontheclarityanddurationoftheiconic memorystorage.Iconicmemoryisthevisualsensorymemoryregisterwhichstoresvisualimagesaftertheextinctionofaphysicalstimulus.Whileiconicmemorycontainsahugecapacity,itdeclinesrapidly.Informationstorediniconicmemorygenerallydisappearswithinhalfasecond(dependingonthebrightness).Iconicmemoryisacomponentofsensorymemorythatinvolvesafast-decayingvisualinformationstore(Sperling,1960).Itprovidesacoherentyetfleetingrepresentationofourvisualperception(Pratte,2018).Aristotlewasamongtheearliestindividualstohavedocumentedthepersistenceofavisualrepresentationofanobjectfollowingitsphysicalextinction(Allen,1926).Hepointedoutthatexperiencingadreaminvolvedafterimages.Inthe18thand19thcenturies,theobservationofthetrailoflightengenderedbyamovingstick’sshiningemberelicitedthecuriosityofmanyresearchers.Theydelvedintotheempiricalanalysesofthisphenomenonwhichwassubsequentlydescribedasvisiblepersistence(Coltheart,1980).Eventually,in1960,theAmericancognitivepsychologistGeorgeSperling,viaseveralexperiments,confirmedcapacityanddurationaspartsofamemorysystemcalledvisualsensorymemory(Sperling,1960).Sevenyearslater,UlricNeisserintroducedtheterm‘iconicmemory’torefertothisfast-decayingstoreofmemory(Neisser,1967).Accordingtothecurrentunderstandingoficonicmemory,informationalpersistenceandvisualpersistenceembodyfundamentallydistinctproperties,andtheformeristhoughttosubstantiallycontributetovisualshort-termmemory(Coltheart,1980;Irwin&Yeomans,1986).ExamplesofIconicMemoryFollowingaresomeexamplesoficonicmemory:Youbrieflysurveytheobjectsofyourbedroombeforeturningthelightsoff.Thememoryofhowyoursurroundingsappearedisanexampleoficonicmemory.Youpassahugebillboardwhiledrivingonthehighway.Yourmemoryofwhatyousawonthebillboardisanexampleoficonicmemory.Whileridingonthetrain,youseealambgrazingonthemeadows.Thememoryofwhatyoubrieflybeheldisanexampleoficonicmemory.Youareoutsideonadarkandrainynight.Suddenly,yoursurroundingsarelitupbyaflashoflightning.Thefleetingimageyousawunderthebriefglow,whichyoucouldsubsequentlyrecall,isanexampleoficonicmemory.Sperling’sExperimentsInhisinitialexperimentsconductedin1960,Sperlingpresentedtheobserverswithatachistoscopicstimuluscomprisingvariousalphanumericcharactersfornearly50milliseconds(Sperling,1960).Afterwards,basedonacue,theparticipantshadtorecalllinesoflettersfromthedisplay.Theperformanceofmemorywascomparedunderwholereportandpartialreportconditions.Whilethe'wholereport'requiredtheparticipantstorecallelementsaccordingtotheiroriginalspatialpositions,the'partialreport'demandedthatsubsetsofthedisplay’scharactersbeidentifiedbasedoncuedrecallatdifferenttimeintervals.Ahigh,medial,orlowtonewouldindicatewhichgroupofcharactersneededtobereported.Underthewholereportconditions,theparticipantsweregenerallyabletorecallabout35%ofthecharactersondisplay(Sperling,1960).Thefindingssuggestthatwholereportisrestrictedbyasystemofmemorythathasacapacityof4to5objects.Ontheotherhand,underthepartialreportconditions,theparticipantscouldrecallaspecificrowon75%ofthetrials.Becausetheparticipantswereunawareoftherowwhichtheywouldhavetorecall,performancehereinwastantamounttoarandomsamplingofthememoryoftheparticipantsfortheentiredisplay.Theresultshereinseemedtosuggestthatthreefourthsofthevisualdisplayremainedaccessibletomemory.Thisoutcomesignifiedamanifestincreaseiniconicmemory’shypothesizedcapacity.IconicMemoryandChangeBlindnessChangeblindnessisthephenomenonwherebyanalterationintroducedtothevisualstimulusescapesthenoticeoftheobserver(Becker,Pashler&Anstis,2000).Thebriefintervalbetweenthetwosuccessivevisualscenes,thelatterofwhichisslightlyaltered,iscalledtheinterstimulusinterval.Thelengthoftheinterstimulusintervalisthoughttoreducetheiconicmemorystore.Inotherwords,iconicmemoryiswhatenablesthedetectionofchangesinavisualscene(Persuh,Genzer&Melara,2018).However,lapsesiniconicmemory,whichcanbedefinedaschangeblindness,arelikelytooccurinproportiontothelengthoftheinterstimulusinterval.NeurologyrelatedtoIconicMemoryTheretina’sphotoreceptors,theretinalganglioncells,themiddleoccipitalgyrus,proteinsinthebrainandvariousgeneticfactorsimpactthefunctioningoficonicmemory.Thevisualsensorypathwayplaysavitalroleiniconicmemory.Theretina’sphotoreceptors,namelyrodsandcones,remainactivebeyondastimulus’physicaloffset(Irwin&Thomas,2008).Additionally,thetransientM-typecellsandthesustainedP-typecellsoftheretinalganglioncellsarealsoinvolved(Levick&Zacks,1970).Whiletheformerareactivesolelyduringstimulusonsetandoffset,thelatterareactiveevenin-between.Theprimaryvisualcortexwithintheoccipitallobetoo,playsanimportantroleintheprocess(Nikolić,Häusler,Singer&Maass,2009).Moreover,iconicmemory’scapacitytodetectchangeisshapedbythemiddleoccipitalgyrus(Beste,Schneider,Epplen&Arning,2011).Proteinsinthebrainandvariousgeneticfactorstoo,impactthefunctioningoficonicmemory. AbouttheAuthorAyeshPererarecentlygraduatedfromHarvardUniversity,wherehestudiedpolitics,ethicsandreligion.HeispresentlyconductingresearchinneuroscienceandpeakperformanceasaninternfortheCambridgeCenterforBehavioralStudies,whilealsoworkingonabookofhisownonconstitutionallawandlegalinterpretation.Howtoreferencethisarticle:Prera,A(2021,March16).Iconicmemory.SimplyPsychology.www.simplypsychology.org/iconic-memory.htmlAPAStyleReferencesAllen,F.(1926).Thepersistenceofvision.AmericanJournalofPhysiologicalOptics,7,439–457.Becker,M.W.,Pashler,H.,&Anstis,S.M.(2000).Theroleoficonicmemoryinchange-detectiontasks.Perception,29(3),273-286.Beste,C.,Schneider,D.,Epplen,J.T.,&Arning,L.(2011).ThefunctionalBDNFVal66Metpolymorphismaffectsfunctionsofpre-attentivevisualsensorymemoryprocesses.Neuropharmacology,60(2-3),467-471.Coltheart,M.(1980).Iconicmemoryandvisiblepersistence.Perception&psychophysics,27(3),183-228.Dick,A.O.(1974).Iconicmemoryanditsrelationtoperceptualprocessingandothermemorymechanisms.Perception&Psychophysics,16(3),575-596.Irwin,D.E.,&Yeomans,J.M.(1986).Sensoryregistrationandinformationalpersistence.JournalofExperimentalPsychology:HumanPerceptionandPerformance,12(3),343.Irwin,D.E.,&Yeomans,J.M.(1986).Sensoryregistrationandinformationalpersistence.JournalofExperimentalPsychology:HumanPerceptionandPerformance,12(3),343.Irwin,D.,&Thomas,L.(2008).Neuralbasisofsensorymemory.Visualmemory,32-35.Levick,W.R.,&Zacks,J.L.(1970).Responsesofcatretinalganglioncellstobriefflashesoflight.TheJournalofPhysiology,206(3),677-700.Neisser,Ulric(1967).CognitivePsychology.NewYork:Appleton-Century-Crofts.Nikolić,D.,Häusler,S.,Singer,W.,&Maass,W.(2009).Distributedfadingmemoryforstimuluspropertiesintheprimaryvisualcortex.PLoSbiology,7(12),e1000260.Persuh,Marjan;Genzer,Boris;Melara,Robert(20April2018).Iconicmemoryrequiresattention.FrontiersinHumanNeuroscience,6,126.Pratte,M.S.(2018).Iconicmemoriesdieasuddendeath.Psychologicalscience,29(6),877-887.Sperling,G.(1960).Theinformationavailableinbriefvisualpresentations.Psychologicalmonographs:Generalandapplied,74(11),1.FurtherInformationSensoryMemory Sperling,G.(1960).Theinformationavailableinbriefvisualpresentations.Psychologicalmonographs:Generalandapplied,74(11),1.Öğmen,H.,&Herzog,M.H.(2016).Anewconceptualizationofhumanvisualsensory-memory.Frontiersinpsychology,7,830.Sligte,I.G.,Vandenbroucke,A.R.,Scholte,H.S.,&Lamme,V.(2010).Detailedsensorymemory,sloppyworkingmemory.Frontiersinpsychology,1,175.Howtoreferencethisarticle:Prera,A(2021,March16).Iconicmemory.SimplyPsychology.www.simplypsychology.org/iconic-memory.html Home|AboutUs|PrivacyPolicy|Advertise|ContactUsBacktotopSimplyPsychology'scontentisforinformationalandeducationalpurposesonly.Ourwebsiteisnotintendedtobeasubstituteforprofessionalmedicaladvice,diagnosis,ortreatment.©SimplyScholarLtd-Allrightsreservedreportthisadreportthisadxx